NATO, on Washington Heights, will make Ukraine a ‘bridge’ deal to the club

NATO will provide Ukraine with a new headquarters in Washington on top of its military support, officials said, a term of respect for the alliance’s long-term loyalty to the country’s security that has been heralded as a “bridge” . The last club of Kyiv.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky – along with some Central European countries – were eagerly hoping that his country would be brought into the club talks through NATO at the top, which run from July 9 to 11.

U.S. and NATO officials said that instead, the alliance would announce that it is ready to organize a project in Germany to coordinate different types of aid to Ukraine in the long term. The visit is intended to send a strong signal of Allied loyalty to both Kiev and Moscow in hopes that the West will tire of supporting the war.

Since this project is under the auspices of NATO, it has been designed despite the fact that Donald J. Trump, an astute critic of the alliance and aid to Ukraine, wins the US presidency in November.

The Biden leadership and NATO officials came up with the doctrine in an effort to give Kiev some shield at the top while they believe the technology is not suitable for engaging Ukraine.

It’s not like the country is still at war, which could make NATO an active player in the fight. President Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz noted that Ukraine must make significant reforms to rid itself of corruption and strengthen its independence and rule of law.

The hope is that this project and the integrity it represents will satisfy Mr. Zelensky and manage to reach an easier ending than the last one, the one in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he vented his frustrations. When there was no Ukraine. Presented a company timeline for club negotiations.

The new project will bring under one umbrella the activities of the Flow “Capability Alliance” of countries that provide various aspects of military assistance to Ukraine, such as air defense, artillery, F-16 fighter jets, weapons and training.

It will also coordinate the training of Ukrainian military personnel in allied countries and long-term bilateral security guarantees that other countries have signed with Ukraine, according to United States and NATO officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of key issues. But talked about. The scheme has not started yet.

However, all NATO countries are in favor of starting the project, officials said, and it will be presented at the top meeting.

Until now, aid to Ukraine has usually been delivered on a country-by-country basis, with little regard to its capacity and even to Kiev’s most urgent wishes. Giving information about the plan outlined, officials said the objective of gathering important aspects of assistance and training under one command is to streamline the tide and make it more consistent.

Known as NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine, or NSATU, the initiative will work to free up duplication and headache from the different types of weapons shipped to Ukraine.

One example, US and NATO officials said, is the new French deal to donate an unspecified variety of Mirage fighter planes, at a time when Ukraine is already struggling to train pilots and field F-16s. The Mirage, a similarly sophisticated airplane, demands other training, parts and maintenance that could put a strain on Ukrainian facilities.

The project would be based primarily at a US military facility in Wiesbaden, Germany, and would be led by a three-star general – presumably an American – reporting directly to General Christopher Gee, the NATO and US commander with supremacy in Europe. Cavoli.

Putting the project under the NATO cap of Common Cavoli would protect it from any political business in Washington, said Ivo Daalder, the former US ambassador to NATO, who has been briefed on the plan.

The new project will also include an existing team from the United States stationed in Wiesbaden to take care of the shipment of guns and staff training.

And it will run parallel to the Ukraine Defense Touch Crew, which is under US control and coordinates the delivery of guns to Ukraine from some 50 countries, far beyond NATO’s private 32 member states. Officials said Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III insisted that it would remain under US presidency.

The rush will not be officially called a “mission” because of objections from Germany, which wanted to avoid the implication that it and NATO were at war with Russia, Mr. Daalder said, even though Russia may already be thinking that. It views its invasion of Ukraine as a conflict of “self-defense” against an increasingly aggressive and adversarial NATO.

Mr. Dalder noted, “This is an effort at Trump-proofing and a deliberate effort to bring Ukraine and NATO together to support Ukraine today as well as in the future.”

The Biden administration has yet to comment publicly on key points of the plan. However, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the summit would demonstrate that allies are taking “concrete steps” to bring Ukraine closer and to its security as a “bridge to eventual membership”. On NATO’s final future, the alliance refused to give Ukraine a definite timeline and amicable path to the club or even allow it to begin negotiations on the club. Mr Zelensky was angry, but the overall position of the coalition is not one to do business at this top.

NATO’s reluctance to hold secret accession talks with Ukraine or to give a firm timeline for doing so stands in contrast to the ECU union, which began accession talks with both Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday.

Those negotiations are expected to take several years, though they mark a remarkable and symbolic year for both countries – Ukraine, which is enduring Russian aggression, and Moldova, which fears it may be the closest it has come.

Outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke vaguely about plans for the new project after a meeting of alliance defense ministers on June 14. He told a news conference it would be presented at the Washington summit and would “put its support to Ukraine on a strong basis for years to come.”

Describing the brand new undertaking as “an important summit” and “an additional step on Ukraine’s path to NATO membership”, he emphasized that “these efforts do not make NATO a party to the conflict, but they do not make Ukraine a party to the conflict.” We will increase our support to maintain our right to self-defense.”